This is a partial copy of an article that one of our site supporters,Rob T, had emailed me which I thought was interesting.
It's an interview with a guy that did UOA on aircraft for 35 years. Here's
what I regard as the interesting bits:
Once I chased down an airplane that was based in St. Louis and it was on the
ramp in Denver when I found it. It was a Mooney with an IO-360, and I got
the FBO to flag it not to go anywhere. They pulled the engine out in Denver,
and the shop that disassembled it got back to me with some feedback that it
would never have made another takeoff. I don't remember if it was the cam or
the crank or a valve, but it was just trashed.
Once I made a call to a guy who had a twin Comanche -- this was one of those
where I just didn't like something in the right engine so I called him and
said 'I think you've either got a ring or a valve problem.' It wasn't enough
to say 'ground it,' but I was concerned. His mechanic, who didn't have much
faith on oil analysis, said, 'Don't worry about it,' and the owner just kept
checking it periodically and all of a sudden he found a bad exhaust valve
leak on one cylinder. When they pulled the cylinder they found that the wear
between the valve stem and guide was so great that it had about 3/16 of an
inch side-play in it, so he was getting ready to drop a cylinder. That's
just one of those that didn't really give us enough trash to hang our hat
on, but something didn't look right.
...
We had a good one several years ago. I got a sample that was just horrible
from one of the engine shops in California, and I called the customer and
said, 'We've got to find this airplane, and if it's already gone out of your
shop we need to find it and find out what we've got here.' The shop told me
the airplane had already gone home to another city. They looked at it there
and in their investigation they had a mechanic admit that he forgot to take
the oil sample -- even though it was on the work order -- so he'd gone over
and gotten an oil sample out of the waste oil drum. He was going to cover
his butt and I was ready to tell an owner, 'You've got to open that engine
up.'
What's your opinion on oil additives?
Our study on Av Blend disclosed no measurable benefit. We heard from a lot
of people who used it and said they were going to keep using it, and most of
those testimonials came from small bore Continentals -- 0-300 and 0-200
Continentals -- where the guy said the AvBlend seemed to stop their valve
sticking. As far as a measurable benefit, I spent two years developing the
data and I never did find anything.
I am not an advocate of snake oils, and I'm not an advocate of becoming a
crankcase chemist. When you pour this stuff into an engine you're taking a
manufacturer's advertising agency's word for what it's going to do when it
mixes with the oil that's in there. I think you're crazy.
Marvel Mystery Oil is mostly solvent. You pour it in your crankcase and you
get diluted oil. The solvent flashes off at a couple hundred degrees, so it
hadn't really done anything. STP is a viscosity index improver, so it
thickens the oil. The Teflon stuff is a joke, but lots of people have made
lots of money telling you that you can put Teflon in your engine.
The oil companies spend tons of money to develop the best oil that they can
develop to meet the specifications of those engines, and then some guy over
here with a race car in his backyard and a couple of buckets in his garage
starts selling this stuff that he says makes his race car run better.
I make an additive right here in Tulsa. It's highly refined cattle manure
from the yards out in the Texas panhandle. We only use Texas panhandle
feedlots to get the raw material, and we blend it with a solvent material
that will flash off real fast -- we get that out of the bathtub faucet. It's
$19.95 a quart and we pay all shipping and handling. You pour it in your
oil, and we don't know what it'll do and we don't really care -- we got your
$19.95. I call it BSIAB -- ******** in a bottle.
This guy sold off his analysis business to a very respectable oil analysis company which we have come to know which is our friend and supporter...
BLACKSTONE LABS.
It's an interview with a guy that did UOA on aircraft for 35 years. Here's
what I regard as the interesting bits:
Once I chased down an airplane that was based in St. Louis and it was on the
ramp in Denver when I found it. It was a Mooney with an IO-360, and I got
the FBO to flag it not to go anywhere. They pulled the engine out in Denver,
and the shop that disassembled it got back to me with some feedback that it
would never have made another takeoff. I don't remember if it was the cam or
the crank or a valve, but it was just trashed.
Once I made a call to a guy who had a twin Comanche -- this was one of those
where I just didn't like something in the right engine so I called him and
said 'I think you've either got a ring or a valve problem.' It wasn't enough
to say 'ground it,' but I was concerned. His mechanic, who didn't have much
faith on oil analysis, said, 'Don't worry about it,' and the owner just kept
checking it periodically and all of a sudden he found a bad exhaust valve
leak on one cylinder. When they pulled the cylinder they found that the wear
between the valve stem and guide was so great that it had about 3/16 of an
inch side-play in it, so he was getting ready to drop a cylinder. That's
just one of those that didn't really give us enough trash to hang our hat
on, but something didn't look right.
...
We had a good one several years ago. I got a sample that was just horrible
from one of the engine shops in California, and I called the customer and
said, 'We've got to find this airplane, and if it's already gone out of your
shop we need to find it and find out what we've got here.' The shop told me
the airplane had already gone home to another city. They looked at it there
and in their investigation they had a mechanic admit that he forgot to take
the oil sample -- even though it was on the work order -- so he'd gone over
and gotten an oil sample out of the waste oil drum. He was going to cover
his butt and I was ready to tell an owner, 'You've got to open that engine
up.'
What's your opinion on oil additives?
Our study on Av Blend disclosed no measurable benefit. We heard from a lot
of people who used it and said they were going to keep using it, and most of
those testimonials came from small bore Continentals -- 0-300 and 0-200
Continentals -- where the guy said the AvBlend seemed to stop their valve
sticking. As far as a measurable benefit, I spent two years developing the
data and I never did find anything.
I am not an advocate of snake oils, and I'm not an advocate of becoming a
crankcase chemist. When you pour this stuff into an engine you're taking a
manufacturer's advertising agency's word for what it's going to do when it
mixes with the oil that's in there. I think you're crazy.
Marvel Mystery Oil is mostly solvent. You pour it in your crankcase and you
get diluted oil. The solvent flashes off at a couple hundred degrees, so it
hadn't really done anything. STP is a viscosity index improver, so it
thickens the oil. The Teflon stuff is a joke, but lots of people have made
lots of money telling you that you can put Teflon in your engine.
The oil companies spend tons of money to develop the best oil that they can
develop to meet the specifications of those engines, and then some guy over
here with a race car in his backyard and a couple of buckets in his garage
starts selling this stuff that he says makes his race car run better.
I make an additive right here in Tulsa. It's highly refined cattle manure
from the yards out in the Texas panhandle. We only use Texas panhandle
feedlots to get the raw material, and we blend it with a solvent material
that will flash off real fast -- we get that out of the bathtub faucet. It's
$19.95 a quart and we pay all shipping and handling. You pour it in your
oil, and we don't know what it'll do and we don't really care -- we got your
$19.95. I call it BSIAB -- ******** in a bottle.
This guy sold off his analysis business to a very respectable oil analysis company which we have come to know which is our friend and supporter...
BLACKSTONE LABS.
